Oh What a Night!

Last night, Mr B was out filming and so I had sole charge of the viewing schedule. What fun!

The evening kicked off with the final of BBC4's The Book Quiz. This is a programme I only stumbled on last night by chance and it's very disappointing to realise it was the last in the series as I certainly enjoyed myself shouting out the answers and discovering several shameful knowledge gaps. To provide a flavour for my contribution to the quiz (and do keep in mind it was just the dogs and I on the sofa and they were not of much use) an example follows. Please do feel free to insert your own groans as the much cleverer panel shout out ten titles I am familiar with but have not remembered at regular intervals...

Q: List as many of Hardy's 14 novels as you can in one minute.
Me: Tess of the D'Urbervilles...umm... Jude the Obscure and Oh! Oh! The one with Bathsheba in it that I read at school when I was 15 and is on the tip of my...bother...what was it again? Out of time.

This moves me nicely on to a ramble where I confess that I think that Far from the Madding Crowd is the only Hardy novel I have actually read and that was under educational supervision. I have a feeling I might have read The Mayor of Casterbridge but as I am not entirely sure then I doubt it counts. I have no idea why I have developed an aversion to reading Hardy, given I greatly enjoy almost any contemporary you can name, and shall invest in a couple of books to find out why I have been avoiding him. I might even have some but they are bound to be in the attic along with 75% of my book stash.

I digress. Back to last night's viewing. I spent the rest of the night in the company of two of my favourite ladies - Miss Elinor Dashwood and Miss Emma Woodhouse. What a charming pair they are and I very much enjoyed myself admiring Emma Thompson's brilliance and Jeremy Northam as Mr Knightley *swoon*. I need to track down a decent version of Nothanger Abbey next...